Time, Space, Matter, and God
I remember someone mentioning a conversation with a skeptic on the existence of God, wherein the skeptic essentially asked, “If God does not exist inside time or space and is immaterial, then in what way does He exist? Is God made of nothing?” At first glance this question certainly seems pretty difficult but nothing about it really creates a problem for a theist.
The question presumes a materialistic world. In other words, the one asking already accepts the idea that the only thing that exists in the universe is material stuff, and apart from that there is nothing else that exists. All that can be physically detected, measured, quantified, and categorized is all that can exist in this universe. Since God does not fit into these categories, the skeptic questions in what way can there be a God. The skeptic’s strict materialism ultimately becomes a stumbling block from which he falls upon his own sword.
What the skeptic fails to realize is that there are things which he too believes that are immaterial. The very numbers foundational to mathematics are immaterial things that exist. Numbers represented with the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc.1 have no actual height, width, depth, color, texture, or weight, but we know they exist, and we use them for calculations. The skeptic also accepts the existence of logic, such as the law of non contradiction and the law of cause and effect; yet, logic is not a substance with physical properties. If one can accept the existence of immaterial things like numbers and logic in a material universe, then it is reasonable to believe in the existence of God.
Christians believe that God is spirit (John 4:24), which means He is unlike finite material people, places, and things, which have physical properties like mass, height, depth, width, texture, shape, and color. He is immaterial. When the biblical writers spoke of “God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:3), or the “eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8), or the “hand of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:46), they were not speaking of physical features of God; they were using anthropomorphisms, speaking of the way the eternal God relates to His creation.
Christians also believe God is eternal (Deut. 33:27). The psalmist declares, “Before the mountains were born, or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Ps. 90:2). Finite creatures are bound in time: they dwell in the present moment, with memories of the past, and anticipate the future. God, however, is not bound in time. Divine timelessness is, as Louis Berkhof puts it, “that perfection of God whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, and possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present” (italics in original).2 Voices in heaven sing, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME” (Rev. 4:8).
The God of Christianity also does something very amazing; He traverses the great divide between the infinite and finite. God the Father sends the God the Son to be incarnated into this word as the person of Jesus Christ. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God is then ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, and through Christ man can find a relationship with God. The Spirit of God also helps lost souls find their way to God, and works in daily transforming believers into the likeness of Christ (John 16:4-15; 2 Cor. 3:8).
1. Or, for that matter, numbers represented by the Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, etc. or binary numbers: 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, etc., or even spelled out numbers: one, two, three, four, five, etc.
2. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 60.
The question presumes a materialistic world. In other words, the one asking already accepts the idea that the only thing that exists in the universe is material stuff, and apart from that there is nothing else that exists. All that can be physically detected, measured, quantified, and categorized is all that can exist in this universe. Since God does not fit into these categories, the skeptic questions in what way can there be a God. The skeptic’s strict materialism ultimately becomes a stumbling block from which he falls upon his own sword.
What the skeptic fails to realize is that there are things which he too believes that are immaterial. The very numbers foundational to mathematics are immaterial things that exist. Numbers represented with the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc.1 have no actual height, width, depth, color, texture, or weight, but we know they exist, and we use them for calculations. The skeptic also accepts the existence of logic, such as the law of non contradiction and the law of cause and effect; yet, logic is not a substance with physical properties. If one can accept the existence of immaterial things like numbers and logic in a material universe, then it is reasonable to believe in the existence of God.
Christians believe that God is spirit (John 4:24), which means He is unlike finite material people, places, and things, which have physical properties like mass, height, depth, width, texture, shape, and color. He is immaterial. When the biblical writers spoke of “God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:3), or the “eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8), or the “hand of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:46), they were not speaking of physical features of God; they were using anthropomorphisms, speaking of the way the eternal God relates to His creation.
Christians also believe God is eternal (Deut. 33:27). The psalmist declares, “Before the mountains were born, or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Ps. 90:2). Finite creatures are bound in time: they dwell in the present moment, with memories of the past, and anticipate the future. God, however, is not bound in time. Divine timelessness is, as Louis Berkhof puts it, “that perfection of God whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, and possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present” (italics in original).2 Voices in heaven sing, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME” (Rev. 4:8).
The God of Christianity also does something very amazing; He traverses the great divide between the infinite and finite. God the Father sends the God the Son to be incarnated into this word as the person of Jesus Christ. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God is then ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, and through Christ man can find a relationship with God. The Spirit of God also helps lost souls find their way to God, and works in daily transforming believers into the likeness of Christ (John 16:4-15; 2 Cor. 3:8).
1. Or, for that matter, numbers represented by the Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, etc. or binary numbers: 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, etc., or even spelled out numbers: one, two, three, four, five, etc.
2. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 60.
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